Ben Stokes may want to spread the gospel of “Bazball” and change what the world believes about Test cricket, but he will not find a disciple in South Africa captain Dean Elgar.
Elgar is a straight-laced, hard-nosed cricketer almost from another era, stern and stoic like a man who’s never been hugged, whose grafting method could not be more at odds with England’s showboating summer. Where Stokes sees a duty to entertain, Elgar sees only duty. England and South Africa meet on Wednesday at Lord’s for the first of a three-Test series, and if the pre-match discourse offers a glimpse of what’s to come, it’s going to be a confrontational, combustible affair.
